Why Our Politics is So Broken

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A second assassination attempt in a handful of weeks. Whether or not you think the first one was real, there’s visible trend. Violence. Breakdown. Discontent. 

Our politics are broken. Badly broken.

And me? As I reflect, I come to understand that I feel orphaned by them. I wonder how you feel. I always debate with myself how honest to be with you. For today, I’ll be brave, and forgive me if I push you too far.

What Are Politics Are

Our politics. What are they, at this juncture, so crucial in human history?

They go like this.

One side won’t admit how bad things are. Scholars call this an age of polycrisis, and there’s plenty of discussion and debate in circles from climate science to social science about just how things got this bad. What isn’t debated much is if things are bad.

This is the side  of liberalism. It refuses to truck with basic facts about reality at this point. Our economies are in crisis, unable to create enough good jobs to yield a stable social structure. As a result, middle classes are dying off—while in poorer countries, where they were supposed to emerge, like India and China, they never did.

Meanwhile, a range of other existential threats now afflicts our civilization. There’s climate change, of course—but liberals won’t engage much with the fact that carbon emissions are still rising. There’s democratic decline and implosion, and only recently have liberals begun to speak about authoritarianism and fascism, yet even now, they don’t really place things in historical perspective. There’s mega-inequality, with which liberals seem perfectly fine, but why should any human being have more wealth than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes? Is this ancient Rome?

Maybe.

Liberalism, in other words, is a paradigm now trapped by itself. Unable to confront and face its own failures, it simply goes on telling us that things are OK, great, wonderful, economies are booming, societies are fine, families are OK, generations have it good, and so forth.

None of this is true. We only need to glance at the statistics for a moment to see that, and I won’t repeat them at length, but well over half of people struggle to pay bills, live paycheck to paycheck, or feel overwhelmed and numb, and so on.

None of this is…true.

And that creates a Very Big Problem.

It drives people into the arms of the right. The right, by now, is extreme.

Yet it does one thing liberalism won’t. It acknowledges that we have Serious Problems. It speaks to the working and what’s left of the middle class, and admits that they’re struggling. It will say that our economies aren’t delivering. It points to social structure collapsing, and social ties rupturing. It even goes so far as to speak of civilizational breakdown.

And then of course it turns around and blames it all on a convenient set of scapegoats. Those scapegoats are what took away your job, wife, country, society. Purify them away, and your fortunes will be restored.

It’s a silly fairy tale.

But in an age where liberalism won’t admit that there are any problems, Big Ones, it ends up being incredibly seductive.

Why We Play Along With Our Broken Politics

This is why our societies are so “polarized.” 

It’s because our politics are broken.

One side won’t admit there are problems, and those of us who feel uncomfortable with, or even repelled by, authoritarianism and fascism, play along, because at least this side supports democracy, equal rights, some measure of progress.

But I suspect many of us play along uncomfortably with liberalism. Wondering when, if ever, it’s going to act on climate change, inequality, downward mobility, the implosion of the middle class, in some robust, meaningful way—not just with a smattering of anodyne policies here and there. 

Where’s the New New Deal? Where’s the Great Society of the 21st Century? Where’s the New Bill of Rights?

We play along because we can’t, in our hearts of hearts, support the other side, which demonizes, hates, rages, openly calls for the end of democracy.

We settle for the lesser evil, which is what grown ups do, but at this point, we’re not going to lesser-evil our Big Problems away. They must be solved.

Meanwhile, there are our alter egos on the other side.

They don’t like the rage, hate, spite. They’re shamed by it, disgusted by it, tired of it. And yet they play along, too, with their side, because at least that side will say things like the working and middle class deserve better, that there are serious problems afflicting the economy and society, that our institutions are broken, that our institutions are captured by elites.

There’s more than a grain of truth in all that. 

Even if the solution that side offers is repellent.

One Side Has Terrible Answers, the Other Side Won’t Admit There Are Big Problems

So. Liberalism won’t much admit there are Big Problems. Conservatism, meanwhile, admits it, but offers more and more noxious solutions to them, at this point, more or less openly fascist and authoritarian. Where does that leave most of us?

I suspect that on both sides, there are a whole lot of people playing along.

Wearily. Sort of almost guiltily. Hey, I can’t support all that—camps, deportations, hate, spite. So here I am, on the other side. And yet this side, my side, it still leaves me wondering. Does it really care about any of these Big Problems? Is this all it’s going to do—a policy here, a policy there, as if all that’s going to fix climate change, downward mobility, lost generations, the implosion of the middle class, and so on?

Hey, I can’t support that side. They don’t seem to care about the middle and working class. They keep telling me the economy’s great, wonderful, awesome, when here I am, working two jobs, and I still can’t pay the bills. I’m not sure I like the hate, spite, and venom—in fact, I don’t. But I’ll shake my head at it, maybe they don’t really mean it, and play along.

See what I mean a little bit?

Are you like this? I know I am. And that doesn’t mean I’m not excited by Kamala and Tim, that I don’t share the enthusiasm. I do. But at the same time, I have to admit, insofar as actually solving any of our Big Problems goes…I’m playing along. I like them. Coach Tim is a solid dude. Kamala’s inspirational. But…let’s get real. The problems we have are going to take more, and it’s OK if these are first steps, but it’s not OK if they’re last ones.

I fear that I disappoint you with my honesty sometimes. That I hurt you, even. But I don’t mean it in that way. I feel weary. Tired.

Of playing along. 

I feel guilty, a little bit, too.

And I wonder, deep down, if you do too.

What I do know is this.

How Societies End Up Polarized—and Paralyzed

How do societies end up polarized like this? Let me now summarize.

When one party won’t acknowledge society’s and people’s Big Problems, but at least it’s not a danger to democracy and society. When the other one will, but it emphatically is.

Let me put that another way. 

When one side offers will barely acknowledge the Big Problems that people are the most concerned with. While the other offers poor, misguided solutions to those very same Big Problems.

This leaves people in a bind. Which side should they play along with? There’s not one that most can support with heartfelt enthusiasm, at least not over longer time horizons than a single election. 

So societies split right down the middle.

One group of people is repelled by awful, immoral solutions to their Real Problems. The other side is happy, at least, that those problems are acknowledged.

For the first group, preserving democracy is worth any price, even letting Big Problems fester. For the other one, they don’t support, necessarily, the end of democracy, but they support the agenda of taking back society and institutions from corrosive elites, and so they minimize the risk.

All this is precisely what we see in America.

Society is polarized because our politics are broken. Not the other way around, which is how pundits tend to suggest thinking about it.

So what do we with all this?

Why We Need a New Politics

I think that we need a new politics now.

One that acknowledges all our Big Problems. Admits they’re real. And offers sensible solutions for them.

Isn’t that sort of just…obvious? By now?

A politics that can admit no, our economies aren’t delivering, yes, our social structures are in decline, no, the middle and working class isn’t doing well, yes, inequality is a serious issue, the average person can’t seem to live a decent life, working hard doesn’t pay off like it used to, generations are in downward mobility, and, of course, as the planet burns, those factors will only all intensify.

And then offers some pretty reasonable solutions to them. Not just hopes to Hitler them away, with social purification and hate and spite.

That’s a paradigm shift. 

We’re not close to it.

No, Kamala and Tim’s smattering of policies don’t get us there. First steps, like I said, but not a shift in paradigm just yet. The same is true in Europe. It’s true in Canada, too, where people are turning their backs on liberalism for precisely the reasons above. It’s true in China and India, where the political class offers no real solutions for widespread stagnation.

This is one of the great challenges of our age.

Our politics is broken. One side hopes we’ll play along with its non-answers, because at least it’s still democratic. The other one banks on our alter egos, who play along with it, and dismiss authoritarianism as a stunt, hewing to that side’s acknowledgement of the bitter plight most face.

None of this is adequate.

And until we have a more sensible politics, built for this age, we’ll continue to destabilize. Violence will grow, as distrust spirals, and people feel lost, afraid, and alone. That’s the bad news. 

The good news is that I don’t think the above is that hard. It’s just sensible at this point. That, though, in times like these, can often be the most difficult task of all.

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